As Puerto Rico is battered by a wave of drugs and brazen murders, Houston and other continental U.S. cities feel the blowback.

Pesquera, who'd been appointed chief a few months before that hearing, listened quietly in the audience as then-Governor Luis Fortuño accused the feds of having "no strategy." Puerto Rican by birth, Pesquera spent 27 years working for the FBI, running the agency's Miami office from 1998 until his retirement in 2003 and overseeing infamous cases including the "Cuban Five" spy ring and 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta. Last March, at Fortuño's request, he took a leave of absence from his job as head of security at the Port of Miami to try to save his homeland.

Today he looks exhausted. Pesquera lives close to his office but is — by law — watched over night and day by heavily armed guards. ("I do go out sometimes without them knowing," he says with a smirk.) He is ferried to work in a brand-new, gleaming black SUV with lead in the doors. The windows in his corner office are bulletproof.

Amid the violence and paranoia, Pesquera has instituted practical reforms: updating aging equipment, improving training, and winning public support by sacking bad cops. And there have been small improvements. In 2012, murders fell to just fewer than 1,000 from their peak the year before, thanks to an odd arrangement with federal prosecutors. (The first two months of 2013 saw 148 new corpses on the island — a shocking total but slightly below the number during the same period last year.)

Michael E. Miller

Wanda Figueroa (left) and her daughter, Zuleyka Perez, stand in the spot where a Puerto Rico police officer shot Figueroa's two sons.

Details

Unlike laws anywhere else in America, Puerto Rican law allows anyone — even accused murderers — to bond out of jail. Drug dealers often spring out, skip court, disappear and keep on killing. "We've had guys wearing [electronic] ankle bracelets murdering people," Pesquera says. In the past year, however, the Department of Justice has increasingly used federal gun charges, which prohibit bond, to keep criminals off the street. "We're sending two flights a week to the U.S. because we can't hold them all."

Still, the bloody tide has barely receded. "In reality, all of San Juan is hot," Angel Martinez confesses as he cruises away from the funeral-home shooting toward the next crime scene: a triple homicide in the town of Canovanas, ten minutes east of the capital.

Gunmen fired more than a hundred AK-47 rounds here last night, and a handful still lie scattered around the crime scene. Water in a nearby drainage ditch is cloudy with blood.
_____________________

Julio Ramos Oliver's January killing made grisly headlines as far away as Canada. Puerto Rico was already reeling from a string of sensational slayings and battered by 14 percent unemployment; the last thing the commonwealth needed was to scare off tourists. Suddenly, the island's slogan, "Puerto Rico does it better," seemed less an invitation than an assassin's snarl.

"People here are fearful," Pesquera says. "It's because there is indiscriminate shooting in public areas between [drug gangs], and innocent bystanders get hit."

A deeper look at the past year's most brutal crimes — and the stories of those affected by the bloodshed — illustrates even better than eye-popping stats why educated Puerto Ricans are fleeing to Miami, New York and Texas like never before. Nearly 5 million Puerto Ricans now live in the mainland United States, compared with just 3.6 million on the island. As the commonwealth shrinks by 15,000 people a year, Florida's Puerto Rican population grows by 7,300 annually. Texas, a state with little prior history of immigration from the island, now welcomes nearly 3,000 Puerto Ricans a year. They're driven by a lack of jobs but also by the carnage.

"Last year there were 180 fewer murders than in 2011, but they were probably even more brutal and shocking," says Luis Romero, the founder of anti­violence group Basta Ya! Romero should know: His son was stabbed to death in 2011 while walking with his girlfriend. But recent murders have been so "ghastly," Romero says, that Puerto Rico is suffering from island-wide post-traumatic stress disorder.

The string of shocking killings began two months before the SanSe festival, with the death of Hector Camacho, the boxer who had garnered worldwide fame by winning 79 fights (and losing just six) with a flamboyant style. Camacho and a friend were fatally shot as they sat in a car outside a bar in his hometown, Baya­món. Police found ten packets of cocaine in the car, one of them open. The boxer had been shot in the face.

On November 29, a well-known publicist named José Enrique Gómez Saladín went missing. Soon video footage emerged showing Gómez being forced to take out $500 from an ATM. Four days later, he was found burned and beaten to death with lead pipes.

The day that police announced they had arrested four suspects for kidnapping Gómez in a seedy neighborhood, a popular TV show called ­SuperXclusivo aired a segment about the killing. The show's main character, a puppet named La Comay (slang for "The Godmother"), stunned viewers by suggesting Gómez got what he deserved. "I ask myself if this killing was not involved in sex, drugs, homosexuality and prostitution," La Comay said. "Did he get what he was looking for?"

A boycott forced the program off the air weeks later, but the damage had been done. The La Comay scandal seemed to expose a newfound heartlessness, as if boricuas had become numb to the violence.

Related Content

Is easy to write without having all the facts. I bet the pseudo-writer haven't go to the Puerto Rico ever. Average American don't know their own history, how do we pretend them to know ours or our reality? Wake up!

I dont get mad about the article, I live here, been here all my life, went to the U.S., didnt like it, all of my life there has been assasinations, deaths, suicides, and things like that in Puerto Rico. Theres a lot of people here that have realy low esteem when talking about Puerto Rico, they say that the island is crap, that the people have the fault, blah blah blah. The island has a lot of crimes, but its not on all of it, 89% of the crime happen in places like San Juan(the capital), Carolina, Canovanas and Bayamón all of them close to the capital. The rest of the island is realy peaceful, I like when news like this come up, because it shows how racist we puertorricans are with ourselves and how racist a lot of U.S. citizens are with us to. A lot of puertorricans keep using the excuse of crime for statehood, the reality is that the U.S. has better things to do and more interesting problems to solve, I dont want statehood, Puerto Rico is a beautiful island with beautiful women and awesome guys to chill out with. But there are also a lot of people with low self esteem and they like to blame it all on crime, not knowing that the roots of it are in their negativity. There will probably be some puertorrican that will criticize my comment, and youl know why I talk so much about esteem x].

As for the agenda of the article, I found it more to be directed towards a plea for more Federal help in fighting the drug war on all borders, including PR. There were many references to the amount of money spent in Mexico to fight the drug cartels and how little is contributed to secure the Puerto Rican people from our own drug issues. I have my personal opinions on why there is so little Federal support to fight the Puerto Rican drug war but I will not share them here because it will divert greatly from the focus of this article which I found sad and hurtful but in NO way racist, badly written or with a purposeful agenda to turn the US born Americans from Puerto Ricans.

Many of us left the island to escape the crime wave and the violence. Professionals, skilled workers and teachers. Ask any of them and they will all tell you the same thing. "Extraño mi isla, pero ya no se puede vivir ahi". ( I miss my island but we just can't live there anymore).

I read this article yesterday afternoon and it hurt to read. I am a Puerto Rican who moved here to Houston 7 years ago. Why did I leave my beautiful "islita" and come here? Because what little work I could find as a Software Engineer paid less than what a short order cook makes here in Houston. The final decision to leave PR came when my next door neighbor's house in Rio Piedras was broken into and his wife was beaten and raped in front of him while he was tied to a chair and beaten with the butt of a gun.

To all the Puerto Ricans who are so upset and calling the publication racist, I would suggest that instead of "tratar de tapar el cielo con una mano" you look deep into the social issues that affect our island and accept them as they really are. Security in Puerto Rico has become worse as the years have passed and that is undeniable. Yes, it was violent in the past too but the numbers don't lie. We broke the murder record last year and that cannot be denied. It is a cold fact.

The article is kind of negatvie but being the true picture of what Puerto Rico is it needs to be reported and like the songs says re: Song by Four: A PURO DOLOR "Pero con un dedo no se tapa el sol", you should not hide the sun for it is there and the truth re: "Then you Shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" John 8:32 King James Version, shall set you free.

In New York last year, there were 418 murders in 2012, with 8 million residents, at least 3 million Puerto Ricans live there.

I have had thus to unfortunately endure living around drug users, thieves, rapists molestors to include men who like men, alcoholics and murderers and have met at least 20 murderers and assassins all Puerto Ricans ( yes murderers) who have killed more than 2 to 3 persons each and have served 2 to 3 years in jail or when they (the murderers) are born again christians, like a couple of murderers (who killed over 3 persons) I've met carrying the word of GOD who have never even got prosecuted nor spent one day in jail for their infractions of law. Those preachers (murderers) carry the word of GOD and bragg of how fortunate they have been that GOD has saved them from going to jail.

I write to you not only to tell you the truth, which the cook said but to ask you not to hide the truth, and to ask you to use your energies in a positive manner, not in the negative denying the truth of what came out in the article.

Instead of talking against the truth, I suggest that you find the strenght to use your writting skills to say the truth and in a positive manner assist in changing the now Puerto Rico to a better Puerto Rico where murders, drugs, and rapes of innocent people will be a thing of the past.

I'm a Puerto Rican born on St. Croix, the U. S. Virgin
Islands, ex-law officer of the U. S. V. I. P. D. with over 20 years of service.
I moved to Houston in 2002 and left Houston, Texas because of unforseen reasons
in 2011.

I presently live in Puerta De Tierra, in San Juan, P. R. and
have been in P. R. for the past 1 and 1/2. What am I trying to tell you with
this, The U. S. Virgin Islands is a play ground of illicit and control drugs,
murders, and has one of the highest murder rates under the U. S. flag.
I hear and read the news here in Puerto Rico every day, and in reason, I shall
tell you that like in my home town of St. Croix, one hundred miles to the east
of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico's murder rate is exteme, and the drugs illegal and
controlled are a reality.

As a Tex-a-Rican, I am sickened to see this scandalous cover story. The article has some facts, but is focused on sensationalism and has misleading analysis.

When reading the story, I kept in mind the publisher's reputation. Like the infamous New York Post tabloid (a daily), the Houston Press (a weekly) is a tacky tabloid which is supported by ads for prostitution in it's backpage. The Press frequently uses controversial subjects for covers and the cover stories are usually not the worth the time spent reading.

The following quoted sentence illustrates how the Houston Press creates a reaction. "Economic hardship begets drug-running, which begets violence, which begets a murder rate normally reserved for postcolonial power struggles." How exactly does economic hardship lead to drug running? The authors do not explain, but make the misleading statement anyway. After the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and PR government layoffs, I too was laid off. Friends and family were also layoff victims and not a single person has turned to the drug trade. The purpose of the emotional reaction created by this story is to draw attention to the tabloid and to sell ad space in the paper and create page-views for online ads.

Boricuas have been coming from the island to the mainland US, since the days of steamliners and the island's anglicized spelling was Porto Rico. I would argue the reason "educated Puerto Ricans" are emigrating to Houston is access to jobs–not the drug violence causation stated by the authors. Compare these unemployment rates: Puerto Rico 14%, (article stat) National average (50 states) 7.9 % and Houston 6.3%.

The authors' narrative echoes the national headlines of mexican cartel coverage. And the story lumps two distinct issues–violence and employment–while largely ignoring PR's rich history of back-and-forth emigration.

I am saddened to see this story published but my expectations are extremely low when it comes to the Houston Press and Village Voice media. Please stick to your strengths–snarky top five lists–and leave the journalism to reputable editor's with integrity.- John

What do you expect? In an occupied
country where its people, called “American Citizens” do not matter, just like
police Chief Pesquera said, "If this were anywhere else in the States, it
would have created a national security crisis by now". But, Puerto Ricans
are not considered a “national security issue”, as they are NOT PART OF THE U.S.
BUT, A PROPERTY OF THE U.S. AND IT’S PEOPLE SECOND CLASS CITIZENS OF THE NATION
THEY PURPORTEDLY BELONG TO.

As stated in this report 80% of the crime in P.R. is
drug related. Since 1898; U.S. through its COLONIAL SYSTEM AND, POLICIES OF DEMOCRATIC
DISENFRANCHISEMENT AND, POLITICAL APARTHEID controls how Puerto Ricans live and
die. The reader should know that Puerto
Rico’s borders are under the ABSOLUTE CONTROL OF THE U.S., who controls
EVERYTHING that comes in, and out of, the island. Under this strict control
U.S. decides from the toilet paper Puerto Ricans use to wipe off their rear, to
the caskets they used to bury their dead. That’s why U.S. is the main responsible for
the drug and crime wave affecting P.R. vIt’s time U.S. treat the people of P.R.
as TRUE AMERICAN CITIZENS, THEY’VE EARNED IT.

I am Puerto Rican and I am astounded by this article. I would have to agree with @bmjulia 100%. I believe that the Houston Press, Michael E. Miller and Casey Michelowe an apology to the Puerto Rican community.

This article was written poorly and not enough credibility has been cited by lacking of supporting evidence. The cover photo, a Puerto Rican flag covering a cadaver with running blood, is an insult to Puerto Rico and to every Puerto Rican across the world. I am not sure what intentions the author had. However, one thing I do know, you can rest assure that this newspaper is going to get flooded with emails and phone calls.

Additionally, there are so many Puerto Ricans in the city that could've bee interviewed as well, shedding some new light into this so dark article. To correct the misleading information about Puerto Ricans in Texas, as the Houston Press equivocally published, there are approximately 92,000 Puerto Ricans in Texas, not 30,000. In Houston alone, there are well over 40,000 Puerto Ricans, according to the 2010 Census Bureau Report. Additionally, when you publicize negative information about a country, especially if you have never been to it, do some research from credible sources and cite the source of your findings.

I was surprised to see this article as the cover story for this week in the Houston Press. It completely changes my perspective toward the newspaper. I guess you can try to fake you are a brave and rebel news source that goes against the grain to expose the truth in the news world, but at the end, you play the tune the money providers composed for you. To use a phrase you would probably use yourself in your paper in an attempt to create a smoke screen to make us believe you are the Robin Hood of the news in Houston, "That just makes you their bitch." Did you even read the article? It is not a well written article. There are half truths and blatant lies with no valid documentation to support its claims. I am not denying the struggles with drug trafficking in the Island. I am not denying the high incidence of criminal activity. But saying that this is a recent problem, something new, implying that "the Puerto Rico you knew in the past is no more and what we have now is this hell hole lined with beer cans and gun shells decorating the streets and populated by a majority of drug lords and their lackeys", no, the personal agenda behind this claim is so obvious it stinks. "Stop the Puerto Ricans from coming to the U.S.; they will ruin our pristine utopia." The emotional appeals used are so blatant, I will probably use them as examples of "this is what you should not do" in my classes. No disrespect to the cook at the over priced Tex Chick Puerto Rican restaurant in Montrose, but there were a few other Puerto Ricans you could have interviewed as well. Maybe some of the prominent doctors, engineers, college professors, and corporate executives that live in this City and were born and raised in the Island. Your article is irresponsible, biased, reeks of bigotry and racism, and a shame. What? Are there too many Mexicans lining your pockets that you have to pick on some other Latino group? Does the prospect of Puerto Rico being a state scare Jane, Susie, and Tom (Frisky ans Spot) so much that you have been pressured to publish this? Surely, you can't be that much of a baseball fan that this is your payback for eliminating the U.S. team. If you want to talk shit about Puerto Rico and the horrible influence we will be to the U.S., at least be responsible enough to pay a little more and have an article well written, not this mediocre propaganda you plastered all over the city. I personally will react to your stupidity by never again using your newspaper to advertise, never again reading your newspaper, and making sure I have enough copies of your shameful edition for this week to hand out to every Puerto Rican I find in Houston. The funny thing is, we aren't that many. So I guess what happened was that the authors of the article were having lunch at Tex Chick and said, "Oh, the mofongo is wonderful today!" And then the waiter informed them, "Ah, that's because we have a new cook that just moved to Houston from the Island." And at that point their mofongo got stuck in their throat and all they could think was, "The Ricans are coming, the Ricans are coming!" They wrote this piece of mierda and you were the only pendejo newspaper stupid enough to publish it. You want to write about Puerto Rico, why don't you write about the thousands of Puerto Ricans that have died serving this country? Why don't you write about the reason why every time there's a war, Puerto Ricans in the infantry are sent first as "carne de cañón", cannon meat, for those who even care to know. My father died in his 80's always proud to have been a veteran who fought in World War II. My son's father never served in the U.S. military. In his late thirties he signed up for the Army Reserve with sights of going back to school. (He fell for the famous military recruiting bait.) Guess where he was sent a few months later, just a couple of weeks after September 11th? Before any major military movement was sent to the Iraq area by continental U.S. bases, Puerto Ricans were already there, no matter what training or experience they had or not. Anyway, enough time spent on this. You are an embarrassment to new media coverage. Por mí, se pueden ir to's p'al carajo con el periodico de mierda este. Never again.

I was surprised to see this article as the cover story for this week in the Houston Press. It completely changes my perspective toward the newspaper. I guess you can try to fake you are a brave and rebel news source that goes against the grain to expose the truth in the news world, but at the end, you play the tune the money providers composed for you. To use a phrase you would probably use yourself in your paper in an attempt to create a smoke screen to make us believe you are the Robin Hood of the news in Houston, "That just makes you their bitch." Did you even read the article? It is not a well written article. There are half truths and blatant lies with no valid documentation to support its claims. I am not denying the struggles with drug trafficking in the Island. I am not denying the high incidence of criminal activity. But saying that this is a recent problem, something new, implying that "the Puerto Rico you knew in the past is no more and what we have now is this hell hole lined with beer cans and gun shells decorating the streets and populated by a majority of drug lords and their lackeys", no, the personal agenda behind this claim is so obvious it stinks. "Stop the Puerto Ricans from coming to the U.S.; they will ruin our pristine utopia." The emotional appeals used are so blatant, I will probably use them as examples of "this is what you should not do" in my classes. No disrespect to the cook at the over priced Tex Chick Puerto Rican
restaurant in Montrose, but there were a few other Puerto Ricans you
could have interviewed as well. Maybe some of the prominent doctors,
engineers, college professors, and corporate executives that live in
this City and were born and raised in the Island. Your article is irresponsible, biased, reeks of bigotry and racism, and a shame. What? Are there too many Mexicans lining your pockets that you have to pick on some other Latino group? Does the prospect of Puerto Rico being a state scare Jane, Susie, and Tom (Frisky ans Spot) so much that you have been pressured to publish this? Surely, you can't be that much of a baseball fan that this is your payback for eliminating the U.S. team. If you want to talk shit about Puerto Rico and the horrible influence we will be to the U.S., at least be responsible enough to pay a little more and have an article well written, not this mediocre propaganda you plastered all over the city. I personally will react to your stupidity by never again using your newspaper to advertise, never again reading your newspaper, and making sure I have enough copies of your shameful edition for this week to hand out to every Puerto Rican I find in Houston. The funny thing is, we aren't that many. So I guess what happened was that the authors of the article were having lunch at Tex Chick and said, "Oh, the mofongo is wonderful today!" And then the waiter informed them, "Ah, that's because we have a new cook that just moved to Houston from the Island." And at that point their mofongo got stuck in their throat and all they could think was, "The Ricans are coming, the Ricans are coming!" They wrote this piece of mierda and you were the only pendejo newspaper stupid enough to publish it. You want to write about Puerto Rico, why don't you write about the thousands of Puerto Ricans that have died serving this country? Why don't you write about the reason why every time there's a war, Puerto Ricans in the infantry are sent first as "carne de cañón", cannon meat, for those who even care to know. My father died in his 80's always proud to have been a veteran who fought in World War II. My son's father never served in the U.S. military. In his late thirties he signed up for the Army Reserve with sights of going back to school. (He fell for the famous military recruiting bait.) Guess where he was sent a few months later, just a couple of weeks after September 11th? Before any major military movement was sent to the Iraq area by continental U.S. bases, Puerto Ricans were already there, no matter what training or experience they had or not. Anyway, enough time spent on this. You are an embarrassment to new media coverage. Por mí, se pueden ir to's p'al carajo con el periodico de mierda este. Never again.

I was surprised to see this article as the cover story for this week in the Houston Press. It completely changes my perspective toward the newspaper. I guess you can try to fake you are a brave and rebel news source that goes against the grain to expose the truth in the news world, but at the end, you play the tune the money providers composed for you. To use a phrase you would probably use yourself in your paper in an attempt to create a smoke screen to make us believe you are the Robin Hood of the news in Houston, "That just makes you their bitch." Did you even read the article? It is not a well written article. There are half truths and blatant lies with no valid documentation to support its claims. I am not denying the struggles with drug trafficking in the Island. I am not denying the high incidence of criminal activity. But saying that this is a recent problem, something new, implying that "the Puerto Rico you knew in the past is no more and what we have now is this hell hole lined with beer cans and gun shells decorating the streets and populated by a majority of drug lords and their lackeys", no, the personal agenda behind this claim is so obvious it stinks. "Stop the Puerto Ricans from coming to the U.S.; they will ruin our pristine utopia." The emotional appeals used are so blatant, I will probably use them as examples of "this is what you should not do" in my classes. No disrespect to the cook at the over priced Tex Chick Puerto Rican
restaurant in Montrose, but there were a few other Puerto Ricans you
could have interviewed as well. Maybe some of the prominent doctors,
engineers, college professors, and corporate executives that live in
this City and were born and raised in the Island. Your article is irresponsible, biased, reeks of bigotry and racism, and a shame. What? Are there too many Mexicans lining your pockets that you have to pick on some other Latino group? Does the prospect of Puerto Rico being a state scare Jane, Susie, and Tom (Frisky ans Spot) so much that you have been pressured to publish this? Surely, you can't be that much of a baseball fan that this is your payback for eliminating the U.S. team. If you want to talk shit about Puerto Rico and the horrible influence we will be to the U.S., at least be responsible enough to pay a little more and have an article well written, not this mediocre propaganda you plastered all over the city. I personally will react to your stupidity by never again using your newspaper to advertise, never again reading your newspaper, and making sure I have enough copies of your shameful edition for this week to hand out to every Puerto Rican I find in Houston. The funny thing is, we aren't that many. So I guess what happened was that the authors of the article were having lunch at Tex Chick and said, "Oh, the mofongo is wonderful today!" And then the waiter informed them, "Ah, that's because we have a new cook that just moved to Houston from the Island." And at that point their mofongo got stuck in their throat and all they could think was, "The Ricans are coming, the Ricans are coming!" They wrote this piece of mierda and you were the only pendejo newspaper stupid enough to publish it. You want to write about Puerto Rico, why don't you write about the thousands of Puerto Ricans that have died serving this country? Why don't you write about the reason why every time there's a war, Puerto Ricans in the infantry are sent first as "carne de cañón", cannon meat, for those who even care to know. My father died in his 80's always proud to have been a veteran who fought in World War II. My son's father never served in the U.S. military. In his late thirties he signed up for the Army Reserve with sights of going back to school. (He fell for the famous military recruiting bait.) Guess where he was sent a few months later, just a couple of weeks after September 11th? Before any major military movement was sent to the Iraq area by continental U.S. bases, Puerto Ricans were already there, no matter what training or experience they had or not. Anyway, enough time spent on this. You are an embarrassment to new media coverage. Por mí, se pueden ir to's p'al carajo con el periodico de mierda este. Never again.

Parece mentira!! If ignorance was a language then Roadgeek would be bilingual! My fiance has relatives in Puerto Rico and they do report that the crime and unemployment is the worse they've seen. It's a shame that drugs are defacing even the paradises of the world. Statehood or independence is necessary for the beautiful PR but to say such atrocities is ignorant. Latinos and Hispanics, American or not, bilingual or not, make America rich in countless ways! Tremendous achievement and influence in history education sports food art culture entertainment government military medical you name it - through the ages! Some people need to wake up and smell the coffee. I'm happy for your comment franynapo thanks for standing up!

Dear roadgeek please allow me to shed some light into your blunt ignorance. First of all, what Puerto Ricans have you personally met? And where are you getting your statistics regarding the number of us that are able to speak English? Let me ask you something else, how many languages do you fluently speak? Most of us do know English, and most of us hold at least a College degree, I personally hold a PhD Degree. Most of the Puerto Ricans I am sorround myself with are either Engineers, MDs or PhDs. That will account for one of the many benefits US can obtain from PR, and with this I am not even implying that I am Pro-Statehood. Take a drive around Washington DC, just to give you an example, and stop by the NRC, and let me spell it out for you, as I am sure you don't know what it stands for, Nuclear Regulation Comission, and count the numbers of engineers working there that were born and raise in PR, or perhaps stop by right there in DC, stop by the National Institute of Health (NIH), and tell me how many PhDs and Dr directing different research programs. The same goes for the US Department of Agriculture, or the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, and these is just to name a few. And it is true, there is a lot of crime in my lovely Island, but take a look at Detroit in Michigan, or Baltimore in Maryland, and look at their worldwide positions in the worst crime cities, they are right there next to us. In terms of language, and territories, PR has two official languages, being Spanish and English both. Please learn that: "We may speak with an accent, but we don't think with one". Have a lovely day.

Roque, an American citizen who doesn't speak English. And neither do most other Puerto Ricans. Yet a great many of them want full statehood for the island. What does it profit the rest of the United States to admit a territory where most of the citizens speak Spanish as their primary language? Isn't English the language of assimiliation and success in the United States?

@e5d5i5e5 But if you re-read my post, I am not denying that. What I find offensive is their propaganda strategy to report this like if it were something new. I've lived in Puerto Rico most of my life; I know what has been going on back home because of the drugs. But this is not new. I've been saying for decades, "Puerto Rico is number 2 in the US in criminal activity per capita, and we are doing everything we can to be number 1." But, don't turn this around to state that the Puerto Ricans coming to the U.S. are the overflow of drug dealers and criminals from the Island. That is absolutely not true; if anything it is the opposite.

@JFPRico@bmjulia How the HELL is this offensive to Puerto Rico, if this is the ABSOLUTE TRUTH? Do you not read the papers? Do you NOT live here? Puerto Rico has become a CESSPOOL. Try driving to your home in a 2 hr traffic jam; a gridlock, bumper to bumper, every single day, and have a guy slip past you on your right shoulderside. Honk your horn and don't let him pass, and he will PULL a gun on you. This has happened to me 2 times, and I have seen it happen to other people as well... Did you forget Stephano, from Dorado, who got rear ended and then MURDERED in cold blood just because the perp liked his car?

The problem? Puerto Ricans. And no matter where we move, we TAKE with us what we have learned in our societal upbringing. Puerto Rico is paradise ruined by Puerto Ricans. The Flag covering the body is not too far from the truth, sadly.

@roadgeek What are you doing man? Puerto Ricans are born in Puerto Rico are US citizens and since we don't have an official language, why should they be able to speak English. However, if you checked around you'd find most most Puerto Ricans speak English, some better than others, but still . . . Puerto Ricans are already in the US and many are third and fourth generation born in the country. What about crime, you say. How about pulling the stats on Chicago, Detroit, Philly, Baltimore, East Los Angeles, Southcentral Los Angeles, and Oakland. Many of the Puerto Ricans I know or who I've met served in the armed forces of the US. You're on the wrong track.

Exceptions which include no political power to make the Federal Government to do it's job which is to guard the frontiers and coastal waters of the US and it's territories which is it's responsibility or even assign enough resources to combat the crime problem they created by tightening controls at the Mexican border...controls the do not peform on Puerto Rico and which are their responsibility as Federal Government.